'Alone alone' old but still in good shape

The oldest known lone asteroid has been discovered by NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory. This extremely ancient back object turned out to be surprisingly powerful.

Metaphysics PSR J0108- 1431 (in short, J0108) is about 200 million years old . Among the lone hidden crystals - the hidden crystals do not go together with other hidden crystals - it is about 10 times older than the previous seizures that hold the record under X-ray images. At a distance of 770 light years it is also one of the nearest hidden crystals ever discovered.

Metaphors are born when stars much larger than the sun explode in supernova explosions, leaving only the small but incredibly hard core called neutron stars. At birth, these neutron stars contain the heaviest matter in the universe, which rotates rapidly at a rate of about 100 revolutions per second. Because the rotational radiation is seen by the remote observers as a pulse, similar to the light of the lighthouse, astronomers call it a hidden crystal. Astronomers are also observing the slowing of the pulsar rotation as they release energy. Radio observations about J0108 also show that it is one of the most blurry and oldest hidden crystals, rotating just over one revolution per second.

The surprise came with a group of astronomers led by George Pavlov of Penn University when they observed J0108 using X-rays at Chandra Observatory. They found that it was much brighter when viewed with X-rays than expected for a planet with such a lifespan.

Part of the energy that J0108 lost when turned slowly was converted to X-ray radiation. The efficiency of this process in J0108 was higher than that of any other hidden crystal. Pavlov said: 'It emits high energy radiation more efficiently than its younger relatives. Although it is getting dimmer as the life expectancy increases, it is still very good compared to the younger generation '.

It seems that the two forms of X-ray emission are present in J0108: from spiral-shaped transporters around the magnetic field; and from regions heated around the magnetic pole of a neutron star. Determining the temperature and size of these heated regions can provide valuable data about the unusual properties of the neutron star surface as well as the process by which charged particles are enhanced speed.

Younger bright satellites are often discovered by X-ray telescopes and radio waves that do not represent the entire hidden population, so observable objects like J0108 help astronomers have Get a more comprehensive view of the dynamics of metaphors. At its 'old age', the J0108 is very close to the threshold that people call 'the last moment of the planet'. 'Then its radiation will go away and it will be much more difficult to observe it.'

The composite image on the left shows the image from NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory in purple, while the optical image produced by the ultra-large VLT telescope of the South European Observatory is red, green and white. .At the center of the Chandra observatory photo taken is the ancient metaphor PSR J0108-1431 (in short, J0108) located only 770 light years away.The protruding object just above the right side of the planet is a galaxy that has no relation to it.(Photo: NASA / CXC / Penn State / G.Pavlov et al .; Optical: ESO / VLT / UCL / R.Mignani et al .; Illustration: NASA / CXC / M.Weiss)

Co-author Oleg Kargaltsev of the University of Florida said: 'We can now explore the properties of this hidden crystal in a way that no other hidden crystal has ever been detected outside the range of radio waves. In order to understand the characteristics of a dying hibernation, it is necessary to study its radiation with X-rays. Discovering that an aging hidden crystal can effectively release X-rays gives us hope to investigate. destroy the same hidden crystals by their X-ray process'.

Observations made at Chandra were published by Pavlov and his colleagues on January 10, 2009 in The Astrophysical Journal. However, the nature of J0108 is not really fully expressed until the new distance from it to the earth is published on February 6 in the doctoral thesis of Adam Deller of Swinburne University, Australia. This new distance is both larger and more precise than the actual distance in Chandra's data, indicating that J0108 is brighter when viewed with X-rays than past beliefs.

Pavlov said: 'Suddenly this hidden object became the record holder for X-ray ability, our results became more interesting when we didn't have to do more work . ' The location of the asteroid that Chandra observed with X-rays at the beginning of 2007 differs from the observed position in early 2001. This implies that metaphors are moving at a rate of about 440,000 miles per hour. , very close to the typical value of the hidden planet.

Currently hidden crystals are moving south from the plane of the Milky Way, but since it moves more slowly than the galaxy's speed, it will eventually loop back to the plane but in the opposite direction. .

This motion discovery allowed Roberto Mignani of London University, in collaboration with Pavlov and Kargaltsev, to discover J0108 by optical light in a photograph taken in 2000, applying estimates to where it would appear. . This study of using multiple wavelengths of light on village elders is crucial for understanding how long neutron stars evolve, for example, how they cool down over time and How powerful their magnetic fields change.

The team of astronomers collaborating with Pavlov also included Gordon Garmire and Jared Wong in Pennsylvania. NASA Marshall's Aerospace Center in Huntsville, Ala. run Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's aviation and scientific activity from Cambridge, Mass.